CJ is Crazy for Legos and Star Wars

CJ is crazy for Legos and Star Wars. He's no longer a Thomas fan; instead, he's now a huge, enormous, gigantic Lego fan, especially Lego Star Wars. For Christmas, CJ asked everyone for a Lego Star Wars kit. He got six kits and he was in heaven. Santa gave him Slave I, Boba Fett's ship.

Did I mention that CJ is obsessed with Legos and Star Wars? Since I'm a huge Star Wars fan, I'm not complaining. CJ has now watched all six movies. We play Star Wars Monopoly all the time. Maki and CJ play Lego Star Wars on the PS3. And CJ makes endless Star Wars kits and ships.

CJ loves his lightsaber! It makes a humming sound, just like in the movies!

Christmas Is All About Family and Friends

For me, Christmas is all about family and this year, I'm really glad that nearly everyone was in town for the holidays. My mom, sisters, brother, nieces, Maki's parents, Maki's brother all came to the house on Christmas Eve, along with some friends and neighbors. Our friends Eve, Karl and their son + Seana, Duane and their kids have been spending Christmas Eve with us for the past few years so it's officially a tradition that they join us!

The real stars of the show are the kids. There's something so magical about having kids around during the holidays. CJ and my niece Jessie spent the day playing at my house and tracking Santa's travels on the Nordic Santa Tracker.  They would laugh and squeal with delight as they viewed photos and videos of Santa in places in Japan, the Philippines and Australia. We figured it takes Santa 36 hours to visit every country and deliver all his presents.

It was wonderful for the kids to spend time with their favorite uncle, Uncle Alex. Alex is my divorced brother who doesn't have any kids but the kids absolutely adore him. He's kept his childlike sense of wonder and he loves to play games with the kids. CJ loves it when Uncle Alex tells fantastical stories about Fang Boy and other characters.

We tried to make sure CJ was well aware that Jesus is the "reason for the season" but of course, for him, Christmas is about the presents, family and food.  Here are some photos of the family from Christmas Eve.

Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) Dinner at Home - The Menu

This year, since I had the cute baby, everyone came to VA to spend Christmas with us. My mom, older sister, brother and niece flew in from CA. Maki's parents and brother are already in VA so the family was nearly complete. All we were missing was my nephew Rusty, who graduated last May and moved to Tokyo. I was so happy not to have to travel with a 6-year old and infant!

Our family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. We call it Noche Buena, which literally means "good night" in Spanish and typically refers to Christmas Eve. Ever since I can remember, my family has attended midnight mass, followed by dinner and opening of presents. Because of the kids, we no longer attend midnight mass. This year, we attended the 5:00pm mass.

I knew it was crazy to host Christmas Eve at our house, but we did it! We had 25 people, including my family, Maki's family, close friends, neighbors and a co-worker. Everyone helped. Maki, my mom and brother helped get the house ready. My younger sister made the ham and desserts. I made the sides. Friends brought wine and soda and more sides. Our Christmas Eve menu consisted of:

• Cream cheese, pesto and sundried tomato dip
• Brown sugar glazed ham
• Roasted vegetables
• Mushroom and chestnut dressing (stuffing)
• Beet and goat cheese salad
• Fettuccine with brie, tomato and basil sauce
• Pear and arugula salad
• Plain and spicy enari (tofu stuffed with rice)
• Tiramisu cake
• Cheesecake
• Biko 
• Chocolate and caramel crackers
• Chocolate
• Hot chocolate
• Spiced cider
• Beer, wine, soda

Yum! We ate a lot of the food, but surprisingly, very little of the wine was drunk. I guess we're all getting older and drinking a lot less! Too bad I forgot to take pictures of the food!

Baby Marcus John Gets Baptized

Since everyone was going to be in town for Christmas, it made sense to have MJ baptized during the holidays. Thank goodness our parish priest was able to squeeze the baptism into his busy holiday schedule!

We asked our friend Eileen and my brother Alex to be MJ's godparents and they said they'd be honored to do it. Great! I told Eileen that being a godmother (ninang in Tagalog) is a serious thing with the Filipinos; she's now a member of the family!

MJ's baptism was a small affair, just my family, Maki's family and a couple of friends. The baptism was held on Thursday, December 23rd at 2pm, an odd time for sure, but it worked for us and the priest. The church was beautifully decorated for Christmas so the backdrop for the baptism was wonderful.

After the baptism, everyone came back to our house for a small meal. Goring, our nanny, had made pancit bihon and pancit palabok, two traditional, Filipino noodle dishes. Yum and thank you, Goring!

CJ's First Words and Other Word Things

I'm writing this down only so I won't forget it in the future.

CJ's first word was dada.  His next word was "gabugee" for garbage.  We had no idea what he was saying until we went for a walk one day.  CJ kept pointing at things on the ground and saying "gabugee."  So that's when we figured out that "gabugee" meant garbage.

CJ used to call me "mama jsa" and Maki "dada maki."

He called us mama and dada for a long time, but today, it's mommy and daddy.  Sometimes it's mom and dad.  I miss mama and dada.

When CJ and I would read his "Click Clack Moo" book, CJ would say "sinsincerely" instead of sincerely.

CJ still calls blankets "blankies."

And CJ still calls snuggling with me on the couch "snuggies."

On CJ's first 1st grade report card, he got an "Exceeds Expectations" for reading and speaking. I'm not surprised. CJ is very articulate and it's really fun to have conversations with him. I wonder if it's because he's spent so much time with adults.

I'm a Dark Sleeper, Mom

CJ: Mom, I'm a dark sleeper.
Me: You mean you're a heavy sleeper?
CJ: No, I'm a dark sleeper.
Me: What does that mean?
CJ: You're a light sleeper. You wake up when you hear noises. I'm a dark sleeper. The alarm clock doesn't wake me up.
Me: Oh, I see. What about daddy?
CJ: He's a dark sleeper, too. He doesn't wake up when there's loud noises, but he wakes up when I whisper in his ear. Isn't that amazing?